Where’s Tulsi? Outsider candidate Gabbard smeared by Clinton not even invited to Democratic convention

The Democratic convention featured senior never-Trump figures from the Republican Party, but Tulsi Gabbard, a primary contestant who won delegates, wasn’t invited. Was that due to her anti-war rhetoric or Hillary Clinton’s grudge?

This week’s Democratic virtual gathering to nominate the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris ticket for the November election was a triumph of party centrism over the progressive wing. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was given a whopping 90 seconds to nominate Bernie Sanders in a technical procedure, and no members of her ‘squad’ were given the stage. Instead, a parade of speakers from both parties told Americans that replacing Donald Trump with Biden was the single most important task at hand.

One other party outsider was noticeably absent at the convention. Tulsi Gabbard, the representative for Hawaii, was snubbed despite remaining in the primary race right until Biden’s imminent victory and winning two delegates. In those metrics, she performed better than VP nominee Harris herself. Yet Gabbard “was not invited to participate in any way”, she confirmed on Twitter.

Frankly speaking, she would have been welcomed at the convention about as gladly as evil witch Maleficent at the birthday party of Sleeping Beauty. Once considered a rising political star and given the same duty to nominate Sanders in 2016 as AOC this year, Gabbard has become a pariah in her own party over the past two years.

Apparently, the Democratic leadership would rather give a platform to someone who helped lie the country into the 2003 Iraq invasion than to a woman who calls for an end to forever wars, some commenters noted.

During the campaign, Gabbard stepped on quite a few toes. Going after Harris’s prosecutorial record was arguably the moment the California senator’s bid for presidency went sideways. 

Guest of honor Pete Buttigieg, described by Biden as the future of the party, would probably not appreciate her either. After all, after he brought up her infamous trip to Syria during a debate, Gabbard gave him a lecture on the importance of talking to your adversaries.

But some believe it wasn’t her political positions, which are favored by US voters and despised by both parties, that cost Gabbard a speaking slot at the convention. Surely a politician who was widely called a secret Trump Republican and a Russian asset had no place there. And who cares that she repeatedly said she opposed the incumbent president and that her alleged connection to Moscow amounts to rumors, speculation, and unproven accusations?

The redbait smearing of Gabbard began early in her campaign. In February 2019, NBC declared her a “Russian favorite” based on the opinion of New Knowledge, the shady firm best known for fabricating a ‘Russian influence campaign’ during the 2017 Senate special election in Alabama. In October, the same attack was launched from the very top of the party establishment, as Hillary Clinton claimed the Kremlin was “grooming” Gabbard to run as a third-party candidate. Needless to say, that prediction never materialized.

So, while the Democratic establishment was preaching unity and supposedly rallying forces to fight for the soul of the nation, Gabbard was reportedly heading to Alaska to help out a small native tribe. She is not seeking reelection as a congresswoman in November.

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